With Trenton Berry's Heartland Modified Tour (HMT) headlining Friday's show it would be the first time in eight years that the A-Mods would rip around the Valley Speedway. I had properly set Danny's expectations in that Valley is a bit of a "rustic" facility surrounding a fantastic racing surface and I swear that some of the same random "trash" and old unusable equipment was still in the same place as it was when I was last here in 2016. Along with the HMT, the local E-Mods were on the schedule and with hot laps advertised for 5:30 and racing at 6 p.m., we assumed that it would be an early night as 32 A-Mods and 13 E-Mods were waiting in the pits.
Once everything got underway that extra moisture made for a very fast race track that not only created plenty of excitement throughout the evening, but it was also the source for some multi-car accidents that made the night go even longer. The first one came on the opening lap of the first A-Mod heat race when Chad Wheeler got sideways in turn two and four cars then piled in with Dean Wille's #68 winding up on top of Jason Pursley's ride. With one wrecker truck and one rollback, it had to be close to a half an hour before they were able to pick apart the pile and we would see similar accident in turn four as the first lap of the feature was about to be scored. Thankfully none of the six cars involved were stacked upon another and this one was cleared a bit more efficiently.
Add in a thirty-five minute intermission and then on-track driver introductions where the local announcer went through the field one-by-one saying the names of the drivers that he knew and then telling them to "give it a throw" as they tried to clear the fence right in front of them with a Frisbee and it made for a bit of frustration on a chilly evening. Then the thirty lap main event made it all worth while!
After the cleanup from that six car pileup the race would go green and run clean except for one caution. Paden Phillips would get out to the early lead and he looked to be well in control at the mid-race mark. Tyler Hibner had worked his way up to second, but he was not closing ground on the leader until lapped traffic came into play. As Phillips looked to get by the slower car of Austin Charles, he went to the middle groove in turns three and four and that was the opportunity that Hibner was looking for. Tyler would nail the cushion perfectly and sweep around Phillps at the exit of turn four to take the lead at the stripe and they would then spilt Charles entering turn one three-wide. The caution would then wave for Dean Wille's spin in turn two and it would be Hibner bringing the field back to green with twelve laps remaining.
Phillips would jump the cushion in turns one and two dropping him well back in the pack as now Ryan Middaugh and Keith Foss would put the pressure on the new leader. Middaugh looked like he might take the point a lap later, but when slipped a bit in turn two he would drop from second to fourth as Gunner Martin now entered the fray. Martin would then get to second with five to go and as the leaders raced for the white flag Gunner would squeeze between Hibner and the front stretch wall to take the lead by a nose. They would then race side-by-side through one and two before Martin pulled away to score the popular win. Hibner had to settle for second, Foss made his trip down from southeast Minnesota a good one with a third place showing, Middaugh finished fourth and Tad Davis closed out the top five as the two division program wrapped up at 9:50 p.m. Brian Meyer was the E-Mod winner from the pole position earlier in the evening.
After an overnight stay in Kansas City we made our way due south to the Tri-State Speedway in Pocola, Oklahoma, for night four of the 45th Annual "Spooker", the original mid to late October special event that was the reason I made the trip here some forty years ago as well. Frankly, I had no memories of that trip so the facility was essentially "new" to me anyway, so I consider my goal for the weekend to have been achieved.
Tri-State sits up on a hill providing a spectacular view for miles and miles in all directions and with more than two hundred cars on hand the pit area, both in the infield and surrounding the track were full to the max. A large crowd filtered in as well as it was a beautiful night for racing in October and the heat races for the B-Mods, A-Mods, Super Stocks and Late Models ran off in fine fashion with plenty of action. But then the Last Chance races started and let's just say that the wheels fell off on this show. Multiple cautions plagued nearly every one of these races across all six divisions and if I could offer one bit of advice it would be to institute the "one and done" rule as most of the cautions were for back markers that would spin on their on own once, twice, or more because if more than one car was involved apparently it didn't count against them.
The final qualifying event ended at 11:08 and it was now time for an intermission to do the redraws for the features, refresh the racing surface and judge the Halloween costumes of the kids that were still here after eleven o'clock. At 11:45 we decided to call it a night making the twenty minute drive to our hotel and after getting back to the room I dialed up RacinDirt to watch the features and the B-Mods were just now taking the green as the first of six feature events as the Factory Stocks and Stock Cars had run their heat races the night before.
I didn't last long as I started to doze off and I turned off the stream before that first checkered flag waved. Checking the time stamp on the replay here this evening it looks like the final checkered flag likely waved around 2:40 a.m. and it looked like there was still quite a few fans there to see it to the end. Loved the facility, loved the track and loved seeing all of these cars with driver names that I mostly only read about and twenty-five years ago I would have stuck it out until the end. But I'm old now, and even though I didn't see a single feature event lap, I still enjoyed my second trip to the Mighty Tri-State Speedway!
So now I was going to talk about how this next weekend would bring the final events of the season for the All Iowa Points with the Harvest Hustle at Marshalltown and with Shiverfest at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson, but now I see that Park Jefferson has added the "Turkey Chase" for Saturday November 2nd. The classes have not yet been announced for that event yet, but it is likely that Shiverfest will decide the Late Model title where Travis Denning holds a five point edge over defending champion Tommy Elston. A win by Elston at his home track would earn him a share of the 2024 title unless Denning posts a top five finish that would clinch his first AIP championship on his own.
The Modified championship is still in doubt as well where 2022 champ Austen Becerra and Ethan Braaksma are in a dead heat. I am guessing that Ethan will be at Marshalltown this weekend while it looks like Austen will be idle, so a top five at either Marshalltown, or a week later at Park Jeff will add Braaksma's name to the list of All Iowa Points Champions on his own, or if he does not score any additional points then they will share the championship.
I look forward to another fun night at Shiverfest this Saturday and I hope to see you there on the Back Stretch!
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